72 SEAL LIFE OX THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



What Mr. Murray did say on that memorable 10th of August. 1801, 

 is a matter of record, as follows: 



Accompanied by Auent Barnes, Mr. Fowler, of the North American Commercial 

 Company, and by the i'ritish commissioners. 1 visited Tolstoi rookery on August 11>, 

 and we found thousands of dead pups, covering a space of about ."> acres, and their 

 mother^ had disappeared. 1 r. 1 'a u son. one of t he commissioners, took kodak views 

 of the place and when he asked me what I thought was the cause of their death, I 

 answered. Their mothers have been killed at sea." 



Since 1 left St. 1'aul Island 1 have received a letter from Auent Barnes, in which 

 hes.i\s: You remember the appearance of !<>]stoi.' I visited Halfway I'oint along 

 with Mr. Fouler and found the same state of a [fairs, or worse : and those who have 

 been to Northeast I'oint say it is still worse there." 



Bearing in mind that Northeast I'oint is the largest rookery in the world, it is no 

 exauuerai ion to -a\- that bet ween I'd, 000 and .'{n.ono pups are lyiuy; dead at St. Paul 

 Island whose mothers were slaiiulitei ed by sealing schooners in the open sea and the 

 pups left to starve upon the rookeries. 



The theoiy of an occasional epidemic aiming the seals has been broached, and 

 plausible arguments advanced to pro', e that t he deerease in seal 1 i fe can be accounted 

 for without blaming the sealing schooners, but as the "oldest inhabitant " on the 

 islands has IK; recollection of anything of the sort, and as no one ever saw a do/en 

 dead cows on any rookery, it is safe to say there is no foundation for or truth in 

 the epidemic theory. .Murray's Report. is',ii ; Senate Fx. Doc. No. lt>7. Fifty-sec- 

 ond Congress, second session. > 



It does not seem possible that the person who wrote in 1S1H the report 

 from which the fore^oin ' has been copied could have a admitted the 

 mortality to be local/' and. as a matter of fact, he never did. On the 

 contrary, because of a t hirty months" continuous residence on the islands 

 and a personal acquaintance and very intimate and friendly relations 

 with every person on both. 1 was well aware of the annual increase of 

 dead pups on the rookeries from the time of the first-confirmed shrink- 

 age of the seal herd in 1SS(J. That the terrible si'ht which met our 

 - a/e on Tolstoi rookery should have caused exclamations of surprise 

 from all of us, who knew its real meaning, is not to be wondered at, 1 

 think, for the starved carcasses emphasi/.ed the fact that in spite of 

 the efforts of the Herts of the ("nited States and of (Ireat Britain, the 

 pelagic sealers' deadly work was bein^ done with an energy and suc- 

 cess beyond all preceding seasons, and that unless some other mode of 

 protection could be devised by the nations directly interested the seal 

 herd would soon be annihilated. 



In section .')(>- the commissioners say: 



I >r. Acland. who had .lust been installed as medical oliicer on St. 1'aul. also told us 

 that he had \\ithin a few days examined the bodies of six of the pups from Tolstoi; 

 he had been unable to lind any si^ns of disease, but that all those examined 

 were vei'v thin and without food in the stomachs. 



Dr. Akerly it was who visited the rookeries and examined the dead 

 pups, and whose affidavit will be found in the Appendix. 

 Comment!!! , 1 on section -.").">. thev sav: 



i 1 i The deal h of so many youn.^ seals on t he islands in 1SH1 was wholly exceptional 

 and unprecedented, and ii occurred in the very season which, in accordance with the 

 modus \i\endi. every effort was he in -4- made to drive all pelagic sealers from Bering 

 Sea. I ho-c familial' with the islands were evident 1\ pn/./.Ied and surprised when 

 their attention was first drawn to it. and were for some time in doubt as to what 

 cause it miuht be attributed. 



It is true we were rather astonished at the number of dead pups on 

 the rookeiies. and beino- aware "that every effort was bein^ 1 made to 

 prevent pelagic sealing." we were pu//Ied to account for it at the time, 

 for we knew of no cause other than the killin^of t he females at sea by 

 which it could be accounted for. 



Subsequently, however, we learned of the unprecedented catch made 

 that season bv the sealing licet, and. naturallv. we concluded that our 



